What if Arizonans had only one place to buy vehicles, groceries, clothes, send their kids to school, purchase insurance, or secure financial services? Most of us would be slighted and feel like the singular choice for these items wouldn’t serve us well.
Unfortunately, our state government is pretty much a monopoly dominated by the GOP, from the governor’s office, both the Senate and the House in the Legislature, to the attorney general’s office, and even to the sheriff’s office in Maricopa County.
In other words, if we’re ever going to have checks and balances, cooperation, and compromises in our state government we need to end the stranglehold the Republican Party has on our state politics.
Come this November, independent voters need to help secure the state Senate for the Democrats so some of the strange far right GOP bills and/or ideas can either be stopped altogether or be vetoed.
Richard K. Meszar
Mesa
Arizona Willie posted at 5:28 pm on Tue, Apr 17, 2012.
" I have seen the problem and the problem is us ".
All the hatred and misery doled out by our Republican dominated legislature is a reflection of the hearts / minds of the Arizona population.
We keep voting them in so that says something about the soul of Arizona.
Slabside posted at 6:10 pm on Tue, Apr 17, 2012.
Oh boo fuggin' hoo Richard, cry us a river. The state was under DemocRAT control with the chief rat Napolitano in charge. Voters saw what needed to be done. Move to New York or California if you don't like it.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 6:33 pm on Tue, Apr 17, 2012.
Help me out with this Letter Writer's ...Democrat ..."logic"....[wink]
Cerulean posted at 6:51 pm on Tue, Apr 17, 2012.
[thumbup][thumbup]
Dale Whiting posted at 7:00 pm on Tue, Apr 17, 2012.
Slabside, when "Napolitano [was] in charge?"
Since when is a governor in charge? We have three co-equal branches of state government and three co-equal branches of federal government. This article suggests that Republicans have been in charge of all three branches. Are you saying Napolitano controlled her branch and the other two as well? She must have been "Super Girl!"
Thought not!
Rich posted at 7:06 pm on Tue, Apr 17, 2012.
Unfortunately, we really don't get an option so long as the choice is Republican/Democrat. One will do pretty much what the other did. They are best categorized as cooperating criminal cartels in charge of more money than any organization has ever been, and more power than any organization has ever had. Both money and power corrupt and both have shared this money and power so long that the difference between them is just hot air. If , at some point, enough of us vote in independents, and the third party (any third party) then it might start to change, but advocating republicans over democrats, or vice-versa is just rather mindless and ineffectual.
Slabside posted at 7:29 pm on Tue, Apr 17, 2012.
Oh I'm so sorry Captain Neo-Con. I really thought your pea brain could understand what I was posting. Thought not!
Dale Whiting posted at 5:22 am on Wed, Apr 18, 2012.
Slabside,
May I assume from the fact that you did not move to New York or California that you liked being oppressed by Napalitano? Logically that can be inferred! Or can't you understand what you were posting?
sockratties posted at 7:39 am on Wed, Apr 18, 2012.
AZW - They do keep getting voted in, but not everyone is included in "We." And it’s hard so see much difference in the candidates. Same smiles, same promises, same lies, same old spiel.
Rich is correct about the two party system not offering any real choice. Republicans want to control through commerce and Democrates want to control through programs but both are just after the influence, clout, and cash register.
Until We the People become less self-serving than the people we elect we’ll get what we deserve. The politicians are unscrupuless but they are not stupid. As long as they can keep us tied up with arguments (read slabside vs. whiting) that are of little consequence they can do pretty much what they want regarding their political agenda and raid our treasury while they’re at it. Arizona demonstrates on a smaller scale about the same thing that goes on in D.C. Same stink, just different pile.
Accuracy posted at 10:04 am on Wed, Apr 18, 2012.
Richard K. Meszar concluded: “In other words, if we’re ever going to have checks and balances, cooperation, and compromises in our state government we need to end the stranglehold the Republican Party has on our state politics.”
Checks and balances in Arizona legislature?? Meszar (and Democrats) think it can be done through more Mormon’s political unit body . . . like Jerry Lewis and Bob Worsley.
VofReason posted at 12:05 pm on Wed, Apr 18, 2012.
Didn't Napalitano have more vetos "than" any other AZ Governor before her? She sure was all about the will of the people. And doing a bang up job for Home Land Security. How many terrorists has the TSA caught again?
VofReason posted at 12:07 pm on Wed, Apr 18, 2012.
Thank goodness she solved that whole leaky border problem too. I mean she was the AZ Governor and new the most about the issues involved. Thank goodness we don't have problems with illegal aliens anymore. Boy if we could only have someone more like Napalitano back in place. Not
Dale Whiting posted at 4:50 am on Thu, Apr 19, 2012.
Didn't I hear that over the last 3 years the Feds have deported more illegals that ever before? Or is the Bush43/Cheney administration above such banal comparisons?
VoR asks "How many terrorists has the TSA caught again?" as if a number means something. How many terrorists did Bush/Cheney catch? Catching people is hardly a measure of making progress. Most of what we do as a nation only recruits more terrorists. Heck, we even have terrorist recruits here. And most got recruited under Bush/Cheney.
It seems to me that Napalitano's critics are partisan!
Bingo6 posted at 7:15 am on Thu, Apr 19, 2012.
In the 46 years I have lived in AZ, even with what few Democrat governors we had, the fact remains that this state has always been controlled by the forces of the GOP, controlled state and local Republican party and the Mormon Church
Now our beautiful state has fallen into the clutches of extremest out of control nativists, where fear, hate, and unadulterated bigotry have become the norm.
My question is where are the rest of us, and why are we putting up with these third rate petty dictators?
I don 't know about the rest of you but I don't pick my friends by their political affiliation, but one thing I know most these radicals are not ARIZONA.
So, maybe Mr. Mesnar is right, a wholesale overthrow of our sad state of affairs is necessary to bring us back to our senses. It couldn't hurt to try.
VofReason posted at 12:55 pm on Thu, Apr 19, 2012.
Yes unfortunately not wanting the country overrun by illegals does not equate to bigotry. Or at least outside of the party not in power in AZ. Thank you for Dale for regurgitating the opposite of the conservative party line. All you need to do is open your eyes and see. Drive through Phoenix or surronding cities and look for the pockets of day laborers and chanty parts of town where all advertising is in Spainish. Let's not question peoples intelligence as to think the issue has been improved and certainly not solved. How about this, come legally- come all.......
VofReason posted at 12:58 pm on Thu, Apr 19, 2012.
And the people of AZ see this. This is why they don't buy the hooey sold by Democrates about "comprehensive immigration reform"- whatever that means. This is why they vote over and over for candidates they believe will do something- even though to date it hasn't worked. Maybe less of two evils.
Rich posted at 6:22 pm on Thu, Apr 19, 2012.
When you vote for the 'less of two evils' all you wind up with is evil.
Arizona Willie posted at 11:24 am on Fri, Apr 20, 2012.
Rich, when you don't vote for the lesser of two evils, you vote for the greater of the evils.
Arizona Willie posted at 11:29 am on Fri, Apr 20, 2012.
Although I have no use for Napalitano, I have to give the devil her due.
The question is not how many terrorists did she catch -- but how many acts of terrorism did she prevent.
Unfortunately, that is a secret that we will never know. The gov't usually does not announce when they have stopped some nut job.
The terrorists aren't too active right now anyway, I don't believe. They don't have to do any more.
They already have 360 million people afraid to get on an airplane without a strip search.
People can't go to City Hall or the Courts without being searched and possibly patted down too.
The terrorists already won. What more do they need to do?
Masterrogue666 posted at 6:34 am on Tue, Apr 24, 2012.
@Richard: It's called a vote, or Majority rule....